Last week, some doctors assembled and made threats of suing an agency that made the newly FDA approved weight loss device. The group is attempting to collect 4,000 physician signatures. According to them, AspireAssist is not safe and may only result to eating disorder. The device allows the users to pump some of the food they just consumed directly from their stomachs into the toilet.

An endocrinologist and dialectologist from Pembroke Pines, Florida named Joseph Gutman, questioned the decision of the FDA. He said “This is the first time that I look at a device that was approved by the FDA and I am absolutely, utterly, and totally appalled that it was approved.” Dr. Gutman has treated patients with obesity for more than three decades. He wants to take the said weight loss device off the market. He strongly believes that AspireAssist is the “most pathetic exhibition of ignorance on the part of our agency, the FDA. It is nothing but a bad trick. It’s like a bad joke.”

FDA based their decision on a one-year study of 111 individuals. Patients with eating disorders should not have this.

To start using the product, the patient must undergo a tube surgically implanted through his abdomen into his stomach. A port valve is used to make an opening just above the belly button. The patients can close or open it to drain the food. They have to wait about 20 to 30 minutes before they can connect the pump to the valve. The food is drained and dumped into the toilet effortlessly.

The entire process may take about 10 minutes and then a patient can remove up to 30% of the calories consumed with a meal. The port valve of the device can cause infections and the tube may leak. Some experts are worried that the device itself might trigger eating disorders. In some aspects, AspireAssist mimics bulimia. This is a disorder where a patient binge eats and then throw up. Instead of throwing up through the throat, you do it through the tube. This is somehow a “mechanized bulimia.” The device makes this kind of eating disorder all right.

But AspireAssist makers are quick to dispute such claim by saying that binge eating is impossible because people should chew their food. If they do not chew enough, the food may get stuck in the tube. The tube is no bigger than a straw.

There are success stories, but there is no enough evidence to say that patients won’t regain the weight after removing the weight loss device. Like the garcinia cambogia extract, most weight management methods require maintenance.

Since patients are required to chew their food, they will need to eat slowly and usually feel full faster. This process makes them eat less. Some got tired of chewing and opt for eating a lesser amount of food.

It is possible that after the device is taken out of your body, patients will have 98% chance to regain all the weight back. Also, AspireAssist gives the impression that a person can eat as much as he wants.

Remember that the implant procedure will last 15 minutes, does not require general anaesthesia. You will likely feel the intolerable pain for about two weeks after getting the tube. FDA released warnings that the procedure may cause risk of infection, nausea, vomiting, bleeding and sores on the interior of the stomach.

The FDA approval means that AspireAssist is considered safe, but by no means should be seen as the most amazing treatment modality. Also, their approval does not mean that this weight loss device is applicable to everyone.